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Currently Browsing: July, 2009

Special Payments Fund hopeful about future

Mikael Elsila

When superstar Carrie Underwood sells CD’s or downloads, the Special Payments Fund collects. If you’re a musician who plays on union recording sessions, you know that this August you’ll receive a check from the Sound Recording Special Payments Fund. The

How the union is stepping up its Justice for Jazz Artists campaign

Todd Bryant Weeks

Junior Mance is part of the solution: he’s a member of the union’s Jazz Advisory Committee. When we regard our local with an unclouded eye, one of the things with which we must come to terms is the notion that

The Musicians’ Voice is an open forum for discussion about the state of union affairs. The letters here do not necessarily express the views of Local 802. Letters must be 300 words or less. Send them to Allegro, c/o Local

Keeping it civil when engaging in politics

Paul Molloy

What compels our members to engage in civic participation? I’ve asked myself that question many times since I began working here 14 months ago. The reasons our members take up one cause and not another vary from person to person.

802 Legal Corner

Harvey Mars, ESQ

If you are a Broadway musician and your show closes, can you apply for unemployment? Yes. While you are collecting unemployment, can you sub on other Broadway shows, teach lessons, and play other freelance gigs? Yes, but your unemployment check

When Life Gives You Lemons…

Mary Landolfi

Health fund a bright spot in otherwise down economy Our challenges continue as the economy begins to stabilize (we hope). Although the stock market has recovered somewhat from the lows immediately after the financial collapse, it has a long way

Recording Vice-President's Report

Bill Dennison

Looking past political agendas to do what we’re elected to do: fight for musicians! The Local 802 membership meeting on June 10th was crowded and contentious – far more contentious than I believe it needed to be. A good portion

A federal judge recently ruled that it’s proper for the AFM to collect work dues on promulgated agreements. So what is a “promulgated” agreement? It’s an agreement that doesn’t involve face-to-face bargaining with either an individual employer or a group

Wade Barnes: “Jazz was always my father’s music, and he always laughed at us because we were singing stuff that he considered trite.” The Brooklyn based drummer Wade Barnes has been taking advantage of his American Federation of Musicians, Local

Matt Weiers Suzanne Vega, a Local 802 member since 1984. Suzanne Vega, a Local 802 member since 1984, is not only a top-tier singer-songwriter but also an activist. She was part of the MusicFIRST coalition that recently lobbied in Washington,

Knowledge is Power

A bargaining history of the Local 802 health fund – what every musician should know Coping with the cost of health care is a difficult experience for every union in the country. One of the bedrock principles of unions –

How companies use the law to thwart musicians

Kate Bronfenbrenner

Angel Warner, an employee at a Rite Aid distribution center, sat next to me recently in a congressional briefing room and described what happened when she and her fellow workers tried to form a union in their California workplace. She

Music Prep scores big for union members

Steve Danenberg

IS IT POSSIBLE that after almost two decades, orchestrators and copyists have recently achieved increases in wages that were long overdue? Yes! Earlier this spring, I received a call from the administrator of our Health Benefits Department, Gloria McCormick. She

Musicians' Assistance Program

Cindy Green, LCSW

In recent months, people have been coming to the Musicians’ Assistance Program telling us how hard it is to find work. During these tricky financial times, it can become more and more challenging to make a living doing the work

Photo by Chris Lee GOING OUT IN STYLE New York Phil clarinetist sets Guinness record New York Philharmonic Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker, who will retire from the orchestra at the end of the 2008-2009 season concluding a 60-year tenure, has

I don’t often tell stories on myself, but this one is really stupid. In April I spent several hours in the studio at station WBGO-FM in Newark, recording a Benny Goodman birthday broadcast with a nice group put together by

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